The home buyers allege that Noida authority and district administration are sheltering errant developers by not mounting pressure on them for registry of flats, even after getting occupancy certificatesPurusharth Aradhak | TNN | February 29, 2016, 07:38 IST

NOIDA: Home buyers on Sunday allege a nexus among Noida Authority, district administration and developers, which is delaying registering of properties. The home buyers allege that Noida authority and district administration are sheltering errant developers by not mounting pressure on them for registry of flats, even after getting occupancy certificates.

The buyers said that the developers have charged Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4 lakh from each buyer in the name of buying stamp. The buyers have threatened to move court this coming week. The buyers allege that stamp and registration department is mulling over hike in stamp duty and months have been passed since the notification of eco-sensitive zone for Okhla bird sanctuary and still registries are not taking place.

"Despite repeated attempts, we have failed to get registration in our favour. Noida Authority, district administration and developers are blaming on each other for delaying. However, the fact is that it is a nexus among these three parties. This nexus is leading to home buyers' harassment. Buyers have paid money for registration months back and developers are using that money for issues. The authority and administration are going slow on the developers," said Amit Gupta, a flat buyer.

Notably homebuyers in Noida face cost escalations when they register these properties as the Uttar Pradesh stamps and registration department are taking steps to hike the registration charges from 5% to 7%, which shall put extra burden on the buyers. This is another blow for thousands of home buyers whose flats are falling within 10 kilometer radius as their properties could not be registered for the last over two years as first NGT had banned the registry in the absence of eco-sensitive zone of Okhla bird sanctuary and after notification of eco-sensitive zone the developers are delaying in registration even after charging amount for buying stamp. Notably, last year the department had declared to collect stamp duty for registry of flats at prevailing rates after the Centre notifies the eco-sensitive zone around the Okhla bird sanctuary. After TOI's extensive coverage the department had given relief to the buyers and turned down the idea of charging prevailing hiked rates and announced to charge old rates.

"If, concrete action is not taken then we will move court to get justice. It is a revenue loss to the government, but the babus are indirectly harming government revenue by going slow on the developers," said Abhishek, another buyer.

"We have been asking developers to register properties or face music. Thousand of flats are pending even after getting occupancy certificate. We have been issuing notices to the developers," said SK Singh, additional inspector general of UP stamp and registration department.

Environmentalist Amit Kumar had on July 8, 2013, had filed a petition in the National Green Tribunal, demanding that construction work around the bird sanctuary be stopped. The NGT had initially halted construction work in the area but later allowed it conditionally. Uttar Pradesh has since sent its recommendation to the Centre and a draft eco-sensitive zone has been drawn up. Eco-sensitive zone was notified by Centre on August 19, 2015. So far completion certificate has been issued to 26 developer projects having 16710 thousand flats. So far only 810 hundred flats have been registered.